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Academic journals are so focused on peer review that they don't bother to warn readers about fraudulent articles.
A recent study found that despite nearly 90 instances of papers that had cited work that was documented to be fraudulent in the field of nutrition studies, few warnings or notices of retraction were ever posted.
Don't trust anything you read, even if it's been published in a journal.
The story begins with Scottish nutritionist Alison Avenell, who in 2015 began to painstakingly document the fraudulent work of since-deceased Japanese nutrition research, and was able to verify that dozens of his often-cited articles had been forged. After their own investigations, the journals withdrew 27 of the articles, most of which dealt with osteoporosis.
A systematic review of multiple articles and trials published between 2003 and 2020 was cited in at least 88 studies. Avenell and her team at the University of Aberdeen contacted the authors and editors of the systematic reviews to alert them to the fraudulent work they'd cited.
Of the 86 papers whose authors and editors the Scottish team contacted, Avenell et al wrote in their recent study in Accountability in Research that only eight ever posted notices about Sato's fraudulent work. Science notes that only one systematic review was withdrawn.
Avenell's findings are very consistent with precedent dating back to the 1990s according to Ivan Oransky.
According to Oransky, most editors don't seem to make it a priority to correct the record.
The zombie papers will survive. The retracted papers by the notorious fraudster are still cited.
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